Slot machine science... I've read bits and pieces of this before, but this article tells the whole story quite nicely.

The whole phenomenon of slot machines is one of those things (there are many :) that make me wonder whether I'm a member of the same species as most other people (shut up, mom). I have never had even the tiniest desire to put money into a machine in return for the dubious pleasure of watching it work, and the small chance that I might win more than I spend. Almost any other way of spending time or money seems more attractive to me. I know quite a few people who do things that seem utterly crazy to me, such as drive for 10 hours to get to a casino, where they then spend two days shoveling money into a machine, and then come home with (usually substantially) less money than they departed with. Some of them even delude themselves into believing that they're net winners of the long haul, when clearly they are not.

Riots and looting in Ferguson, Missouri... By now I'm sure you've heard about the police shooting of an unarmed black youth, and the resulting riots and looting of stores. What you probably have not read, however, is that two stores in Ferguson emerged from the riots unscathed and unlooted. Can you guess why?

“...if you know what's best for you, you'll think twice before suggesting seven-year-old Aussie citizens waving around severed heads might be indicative of broader, er, assimilation issues within, ah, certain communities, or anything like that.” That's the inimitable Mark Steyn, reacting to the shocking photo at right. If you haven't seen this before, the original unretouched photo was snapped by a proud dad, showing off his seven year old son as he lofts the head of decapitated Syrian soldier. The kid was born and raised in Australia, but his dad took him to the Middle East to join ISIS.

The multicultural dogma of cultural equivalence is indefensible by any rational argument, and the photo above is a good piece of evidence for that. Do you really thing a culture that celebrates children lofting decapitated heads is as worthy as, say, the culture of modern-day Scientologists? Personally I have no difficulty ranking the two cultures – one of them would love to kill me, the other just wants my money. The evidence against the notion of cultural equivalence has been strong and hard to argue with since the dawn of the human race, and yet the multi-cultis persist in their nonsense, and drag the rest of us along with them towards doom.

I know! Let's give the multi-cultis their own island, and they can do what they want. There are a lot of multi-cultis, though, so we'll need a big island. Got it! Let's give 'em Australia – there are already plenty of multi-cultis there, so we won't have to transport quite so many...

Gender bias... Take a look at the chart at right (via Carpe Diem). Of the ten most commonly conferred bachelor's degrees:

7 are predominantly conferred to women

1 is predominantly conferred to men

2 are conferred roughly equally to men and women

The one degree dominated by men is engineering, which comports with my own experience.

Are these freely made choices by the student entering school? Or are they determined by cultural context and expectations? I suspect the former, though these days that's not a politically correct position to take...